'Disgusting' stories

Yesterday, Chrys' crazy cousin landed up at my place. Everytime I spend a few hours with her, I am exhausted. Good or bad, it's never boring spending time with these eccentric Parsis. So Dee is a tiny bundle of high-strung energy. She is a photographer, painter, wildlife enthusiast, manic driver-while-applying-nailpolish, and general go to person if you've got a snake or lizard terrorizing your home.

She once caught a cobra from some suburban housing complex and brought it home in a little bag or pillow-case and placed it on her dining table. Her mother saw the bag moving and almost had a heart-attack. Just a few days ago while her entire household was freaking out and standing atop tables and chairs screaming about a little lizard, she calmly picked the tiny thing up and freed it outdoors. This is the same girl who spent two hours digging her bright red finger-nails into my arms in fear while watching a movie coz it had giant spiders terrorising some children.

Yesterday, I offered to serve Dee the dudhi my cook had made for lunch and she made a face. Then, I suggested eating out at Britannia, the most popular Zoroastrian-run restaurant this part of town. She jumped at the idea and from the moment we landed at the quaint little place in Ballard Estate she started clicking pictures. We had a nice fish-patra and were just about to dig into a mutton berry pulao when her phone rang. Another animal (or amphibian) emergency. It was a friend calling from Kalina. A little frog had gotten into her bathroom and was nicely swimming in the pot. The friend was screaming so loudly on the phone that I could hear her across the table. Dee kept saying, "Calm down, it's only a frog". Then her friend said something that really got Dee riled up... "It's disgusting!". Dee almost had a fit. She sternly admonished her friend, "It's not disgusting, it's beautiful. It's a frog. Share your planet!"

Finally it was decided that Dee would go over after lunch and fish the frog out of the pot. Her friend suggested using a spoon and Dee just angrily brushed away the idea saying, "I don't need a spoon". When I left her, she was trying to find a place where she could buy gloves coz she didn't want to put her hands in the 'disgusting pot'.